Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Such Gold interview

An unprecedented amount of photographers swarm the tiny First Unitarian Church stage as Such Gold play. It's the most media attention I've ever seen for a show here, even for bands like Thursday or Four Year Strong. "They were all up in my business!" laughs Skylar Sarkis. "I was like, 'Don't you take a picture of me singing,' because I look like an idiot." He mimics a frozen face and bandmate Nate Derby cracks up in agreement. I'm sitting with the two Such Gold guitarists in the side chapel upstairs, the faint sound of Comeback Kid's set below us. The crowd were just as emphatic as the photographers, piling on top of each other to sing into vocalist Ben Kotin's mic. It's a wonder no cameras were broken, but Nate admits the band have become accustomed to their fan's antics. "Although last night, I had my pedal board up by the front of the stage and kids were stage diving. One kid hit the pedal board that changes the samples, so I went to press the loop from the beginning of 'Minstrels' and it was the loop from 'Four Superbowls.' I didn't realize it until twenty seconds in and everyone was looking at me."

I first met Nate a few weeks previous at the Alternative Press showcase during South by Southwest, where they played alongside Cancer Bats, The Early November, and The Amity Affliction. "... We got to hang out with Braid a bit [at SXSW], which was ridiculous." Nate and I originally began talking about a friend of mine who lived in Such Gold's hometown of Rochester, New York and always complained there were never any decent shows there. Nate disagreed, stating that "[The music scene in Rochester] is all venue based, there are house shows, just no house venues. They got shut down... It's fluxuated over the years. Polar Bear Club started getting bigger, we played shows, then promoters started booking cooler bands and now there are great shows every week."

Nate and Skylar reveal that their upcoming full-length album, which was slated to be released this month, has been pushed back again to the summer. I asked them if working on that was any different than the splits and EPs they've put out.

Skylar- "I got asked that question earlier and I just said 'No.' It's just a bigger chunk of time."

Nate- "Yeah, it definitely represents us in the last year...We have songs that were written in January of last year and not finished until January of this year."

Skylar- "It almost sounds like two EPs put together. The first and second half could easily be their own CDs."

The unnamed album was produced by Steve Evetts, known for working with heavier bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Sepultura. "Oh, we're going metal with this album." jokes Skylar. "No, he did Lifetime and Saves the Day too."

Nate- "He produced many of our favourite albums. Honestly, he somehow found out about us and contacted the label. We had a phone conversation with him and were like, 'Fuck yeah, lets do this!'"

Take Aim- "Steve Evetts played bass on one of Vanilla Ice's albums, that's a good connection to have. *laughs*"

On behalf of the many Australian Such Gold fans (watch the above video for awesomeness), I have to ask if they're planning on making the long voyage over to Oz again. "Brock, who booked our last tour has been talking with our management about bringing us back and we want it to happen, just we don't know what's going on, so much is completely up in the air still," explains Nate. "We're booked up until June right now and our record's not coming out until mid-summer. We want to go back, but who knows. I'm sure we will at the end of the year if everything works out. It's just really expensive... We did Costa Rica in June and are super in debt from that. We make an investment every time we go overseas and the pay-off isn't always immediate."

Nate has a blog of his own, Long Days Long Nights, where he documents touring life as well as interviewing fellow musicians, but it has been on hiatus the past few months. "I've been so busy. It was just a cool idea. With the touring and recording a new album, I couldn't focus on it and had to put it on stand-by....I was going to do a tour blog for this tour, but I'm probably just going to do one at the end." Such Gold have indeed been busy, touring almost non-stop this year, currently with hardcore heroes Comeback Kid and Foundation.

Nate- "We got two tour offers and everyone wanted us to do the Set Your Goals/Cartel tour and we were like, 'No.'"

Skylar- "We wanted to do a hardcore tour to see what it would be like and its been really cool."

Nate- "This is the crowd that we see ourselves playing for...We were already on a pop tour when we got the two offers and had to go with Comeback Kid."

I end the interview with the mention of Such Gold playing Bamboozle, only to discover it was unfortunately an error. "You know, somebody else asked us that," laughs Nate. "I don't think we are. We would! Whoever put that up on our site fucked up." The Razor & Tie interns must have been rocking out too much to this to realize their mistake.